BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER
21st June 2013
It is explained that the banking network in Tanzania is limited only to urban areas and even then only in the city centers denying a majority of Tanzanians access to financial services and CRDB’s Bank Managing Director Dr. Charles Kimei blames it on poor infrastructure, lack of awareness, social exclusion and low literacy rate.
Dr. Kimei was speaking yesterday in Dar es Salaam at the launch of the bank’s new service package, the Agency Banking model (Fahari Huduma) which targets the marginalised population, financially speaking that is.
Because of poor infrastructure, Dr. Kimei explains that it has been very difficult to establish new branches particularly in rural areas.
He pointed out that the cost of setting up a new branch is at least 700m/- now top that with poor roads and utility like electricity and water, it becomes very expensive and unprofitable to set a bank in such remote areas.
The CEO however explains that rather than be discouraged his bank is continuously developing new innovative products to meet the demand and bridge the rural urban gap.
“CRDB continues to leverage technology and innovation in its service delivery so as to consistently provide unrivalled customer experience in the banking industry,” said the CEO.
Explaining about just one such innovative new service dubbed (Fahari Huduma) he said it will enable the Bank to provide services to the unbanked population through contracting a third party, an entity or individual to provide specific services on the bank’s behalf.
He said the Bank is working with reputed businesses, government offices and other credible institutions within the market centers of these remote unbanked areas to provide services on behalf of CRDB so as to cover rural and sparsely populated zones which have been often alienated due to poor infrastructure.
“At this initial stage our agents will be connected to our agency banking platform through our Point of Sales and be equipped with telephone set with SimBanking facility to facilitate deposits and withdrawals,” Dr Kimei explained.
The Bank’s Head of Marketing, Research and Customer Service Tully Mwambapa had this to say.
“In this set up, CRDB branches will be a crucial component because the appointed agents will be linked to the branches for the first level support and to assure complacence to standards and policies in respect to legal avenues as well as customer service.”
“As a bank, we are committed to ensuring that reliable banking services are easily accessible and the Bank’s Agency Banking model provides just the right solution needed in the financial services industry,” Dr. Kimei summed up.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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